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Photo by Bob Pennell "Eldon" is one of the Carolyn Rice's dog sculptures now on display at the Rogue Gallery and Art Center. A tiger cat is another of Rice's creations temporarily living at the gallery. Artist unleashes her animal instincts Pet sculptures recreate character By BILL VARBLE Carolyn Rice remembers the first time she put one of her ceramic dogs in her home. Her real dog wouldn't stop growling at it. Hey, these clay canines have attitude. Take "Dahlia," a plaster pooch on display at the Grants Pass Museum of Art. A dog of uncertain ancestry, her expression has been caught somewhere between disturbed and just plain curious. It's hard to name, but it's a look anybody who has ever had a dog will recognize. "I try to get an expression that's ambiguous," says Rice. "Like there's a story behind it, like there's more to be said." Another of Rice's ceramic dogs, "Eldon" -- he's living at the Rogue Gallery and Art Center in Medford -- has also been caught during one of those definitive dog moments. "He's intense," says the Rogue Gallery's Tammy Archibald. "Almost like he's waiting for somebody to do something, maybe take him for a walk." Another favorite at the Gallery is a casually stretched-out tiger cat. "I have a cat that lies just like that," Archibald says. Rice, 60, retired a year ago after teaching English and art at Grants Pass High School for more than 20 years. She says she's finally able to spend long hours in her studio in Murphy hand-building her whimsical dogs, cats and lizards. The latter are fanciful creatures someplace in between snakes and dragons. She's begun showing her work in Rogue Valley galleries the last three or four years and has already won a number of prizes. She studied English and art at what is now Southern Oregon University in the 1960s. Her training was in painting and printmaking, and her approach to her ceramic pieces is still somewhat painterly. She approaches the surface of her animals much as she would a canvas. She doesn't decorate it as much as make it have dimensions. "I get very interested in a sort of editing of the surface of the clay," she says. She starts with soft slabs of clay and makes them into hollow forms. A dog nose may take shape, or a cat torso or lizard tail. With luck, an attitude begins to assert itself. "It's almost like improvisational theater," Rice says. "I don't know ahead of time what the animal is doing and feeling." Usually the animals have a comic attitude, but not one that takes the artworks to the level of kitsch. Once eyes and face have emerged, Rice puts a body with them until the whole critter is expressing itself. She applies color, glaze, stains and slips (liquid clay) and does as many as eight or 10 firings. As with painting, she finds it hard to know when she's finished. It's not a quick process. A finished piece many represent more than a week's work. Most sell for about $200. "I do it because it's fun," Rice says. Although Rice's critters are undeniably cartoon-like, she's not blind to the fact that people see them as metaphors for the human condition. "I hope people see themselves reflected there," she says. Hey, isn't that part of having dogs and cats around? Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA